Fisheries

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 9:36 am on 19 February 2003.

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Photo of Ross Finnie Ross Finnie Liberal Democrat 9:36, 19 February 2003

No.

I turn to the two domestic initiatives that constitute our response to the severe quota reductions and the days-at-sea regime. Those are also subject to Parliament's approval and to EC state aid approval. As members know, our response comprises two elements: a decommissioning scheme and a transitional support scheme. We have said that we are willing to spend up to £50 million on those initiatives, of which up to £40 million would be for decommissioning and up to £10 million for transitional support. I will say something about the rationale of that approach, the rationale for the balance of expenditure that we have suggested and the specific objectives of the two schemes. There will be further opportunities to debate the details of the two statutory instruments.

We have tried hard to take a long-term view and to marry that with some necessary crisis management. The long-term view is informed by the state of the stocks and the industry—it is important that we recognise and respond to the underlying biological and economic realities. As far as the stocks are concerned, it seems to us to be likely that there will, especially in relation to cod, be no rapid increase in quotas, which will pose some difficulties. The difficulties that the industry faces might persist for some time, but we have taken seriously the need to implement the scientific advice that there should be a reduction in fishing effort on the stocks. I make that point to illustrate that this is not only a discussion about the state of cod stocks but is—inevitably—a discussion about the scale of fishing activity more generally.

There are about 500 Scottish boats in the over-10-metre category which, to varying degrees, catch cod and haddock. Over the years, the number of boats has decreased to 500, but we must acknowledge that although that has happened, the boats' aggregate power, their efficiency and the amount of time that they spend at sea have all increased. We must therefore consider further reducing that amount of effort in order to safeguard our fisheries.

Given those choices, our view is that decommissioning is a rational economic response. Not only will a smaller fleet have the opportunity to survive in such conditions, decommissioning will mean the opportunities for those fishermen are enhanced. Conservation and economics suggest that decommissioning is one of the routes to pursue. I do not pretend that decommissioning will have no adverse impact. We are trying to secure rational and ordered, rather than chaotic, change. We want change that occurs before, rather than as a result of, stock collapse. Against that background, our decommissioning target is to reduce by some 15 per cent the Scottish fleet's fishing effort on cod stocks. We agreed that scale of reduction with the Commission as part of the December negotiations and we are now taking the steps to implement it.

We spent £25 million in our 2001 decommissioning scheme, which removed approximately 10 per cent of the fishing effort. We cannot do accurate calculations until we see the level of bids from those who might wish to decommission, but simple arithmetic suggests that another £40 million is likely to be required in order to remove a further 15 per cent of our fishing effort from those stocks.

In devising the scheme, we have set the eligibility criteria as widely as we can, which we hope will enable the widest range of bids. The scheme permits flexibility in the choice of vessels that can be approved and will also ensure that we can meet the reduction target, which is—as opposed to the decommissioning of a predetermined number of vessels—the key. The process of evaluating bids will subsequently ensure that we try to get that balance. I have no doubt that those who are engaged in the process will also try to ensure that the inherent flexibility in the scheme will allow them to make rational choices.